


God Help the Outcasts

by stranger_thanfiction



Series: Stranger Things 30 Day Challenge [7]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Post-Season/Series 03, Scoops Troop, robin deserves a girlfriend and the world, robin deserves a spin off series but here's my attempt at doing her justice, robin is a good friend, robin-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 09:14:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranger_thanfiction/pseuds/stranger_thanfiction
Summary: Robin Buckley's always been a little different, but to her, that's never been a bad thing.She's been on the outside looking in, an outcast, but she'd rather spend her evening with Sousa than at a kegger.Being an outsider has never been a bad thing.(also known as, why does no one know Robin in such a small town like Hawkins?)





	God Help the Outcasts

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt from @hey-dingus 's 30 Day ST Challenge is Favorite Teen, and man, do I love Robin Buckley. She's smart, intelligent, beautiful, dorky, loyal, and supportive as well as a lesbian, and she's everything I could ever want in a female character. 
> 
> I'm not exactly sure what this is; I wanted to do her justice but I didn't know how far I wanted to take this before it became too long. Robin is an amazing, complex female character, and I cannot wait to see more of her in Season 4. 
> 
> As always, kudos and comments work better than coffee for writing fuel, and if you don't like this yell at me on my tumblr @modernfeminismtalking

Robin Buckley's always been a little different, but to her, that's never been a bad thing.

She's known that she’s into girls since 1979, when she watched _Alien_ and realized that Sigourney Weaver is much hotter than she should be.

She keeps it to herself for the next couple years, and decides to focus on school rather than a social life. 

Robin Buckley has known that she's been a hard worker since eighth grade, when her mom got sick and died within the span of five months. 

She's become an expert at pushing through the pain and working hard. 

Robin Buckley may be an outcast, but she's going places. 

While her fellow classmates like Steve “The Hair” Harrington and Nancy Wheeler get tanked every weekend, Robin spends her Saturday nights in the garage playing her flute. 

It’s a different type of blowing and fingering, but this kind might get her a scholarship.

Robin wants to escape Hawkins just like everyone else, but her urgency is cut by the fact that her family can’t afford college.

Her dad sits her down the last day of senior year, and they have a frank conversation about Robin’s future.

“I love you, kid, but you’re gonna need to get a job this summer if we even want to talk about college,” he starts, going on to talk about how he knows she is able to get into school, but he doesn’t know how to swing it.

Robin is disappointed, but she understands. Her mother died years ago, and her dad is still paying off the medical bills. College is expensive. Her father works in the next town over, doing some type of mechanical work, but they could save for two years and still not have enough.

It’s just her and her dad, so the following day she puts her head down and applies to every store in the new Starcourt Mall. 

She ends up getting a job at Scoops Ahoy, of all places. The job isn’t hard, the hours aren’t bad, even the uniform isn’t the worst, but she’s not a fan of her co-worker.

Steve freaking Harrington. 

Robin can’t look at him without thinking of Tammy Thompson, and for the first few weeks, experiences a rush of jealousy every time he talks to girls. 

After that, it fades to annoyance. Surely, he can’t be this bad at talking to girls if the stories are true. 

Additionally, he’s somehow got four children that he’s whipped for. At least once a week, they come to the counter to sneak into the movies using the back hallways. Harrington acts as though he dislikes them, but the soft smile he gives once they’re through says otherwise.

Robin quirks her eyebrow at him.

He makes a face at her. “What?”

“Nothing, Harrington,” she glances towards the front, “your turn with Erica.”

Steve groans but makes his way to the front, spinning the scooper from his holster on his finger.

Nerd.

A month in, she creates the “You Rule, You Suck” board, and it takes one day to fill the “Suck” side. She begins the daily, weekly, and monthly tally. 

He’s not amused.

Harrington seems annoyed by Robin as he annoys her, so neither really talk. 

Robin counts it as win. 

Weird things start happening, like a power outage and wow, Steve has another kid, a dorky one screaming about secret Russian codes on radios. 

Robin’s kind of bored without homework, so she decides to give Russian a try. 

She is as good as she thinks she is, because she cracks the code and holy fuck there’s Russians underneath Starcourt Mall but Steve and the kid seem to have a plan so it’s fine. 

Robin has spent the last twenty four hours in a Russian underground lair in Hawkins, trapped with Steve, the kid who’s named Dustin, and Erica Sinclair, the little girl who’s only here for free ice cream. She wants to gouge her eyes out with her ice cream scoop. 

This is not fine. 

However, she and Steve are currently higher than kites, so it feels like it’s okay. 

She can’t remember getting out of the bunker and into the movie theater, where this trippy ass movie is playing, but she does remember getting thirsty.

Robin and Steve are drinking out of the water fountain and bullshitting about Alex P. Keaton’s mom when they both begin to feel the world flip on its axis.

They sprint to the nearest bathroom to hurl. Robin’s trying to get both her head and her stomach back to normal when Steve tells her he’s interested in her.

Any hope of having homeostasis in her body disappears, and Robin might hurl again as she tries to figure out what to tell him. 

She can either lie or tell the truth, and maybe there is some of that drug left in her system because she tells him about Tammy. 

Robin might have pegged Steve wrong; his only complaint is that Tammy sings like a muppet, which he’s not exactly wrong about. 

For the first time in her life, she feels like she's not an outcast anymore. 

Dustin busts in as they’re singing, and they end up laughing as the four head out with the crowd exiting the movie. 

They get noticed, and end up having to hide from the Russians behind Hot Dog on a Stick.

She’s sure they’re going to die, and Robin begins saying her prayers. She can hear the men’s footsteps inching closer.

Robin nearly pees her pants again when the car alarm goes off, and definitely does when the car goes flying through the air. 

Steve and Dustin jump up and run to the group of approaching kids, most of which Robin recognizes but a small girl with a nosebleed that she doesn’t and the whole scene is joyful until the girl collapses into screams. 

Everyone begins to panic. It turns out the girl was bit by a creature (Robin thinks she’s still high), and the bite is infected. Dustin and Mike flank to the girl’s side, and Robin tries to lighten the mood with a story. 

She is shushed by one of them as Jonathan Byers brings a knife, and Robin hides behind Steve as she hears the screams. 

Then the girl removes the thing with her mind, and Robin is positive she’s still high. 

The police chief shows up, and Joyce Byers, and a weird little bald man, screaming about safety and plans. 

Robin is very, incredibly overwhelmed. 

Holy shit, Hawkins is actually insane, and Billy fucking Hargrove and this fourteen year old girl (who’s Chief Hopper’s daughter?) are at the center of all of this.

Robin watches a flash of something dance across Steve’s face at the mention of Billy, but she could have been imagining it.

The group has a plan, which makes Robin believe they’ve done something like this before. What the hell is going on in Hawkins? 

They all split up, and Robin stays with Steve and Dustin. At this point, their little group has four brain cells, and Robin herself has three of them. 

Steve crashes his car into Billy’s Camaro, and he instantly whips his head to her.

“Are you okay?”

She looks sheepishly back at him.

“Ask me tomorrow, Harrington.”

Just as quickly as it’s happened, it’s over, and Robin is left with a shock blanket across her filthy-sailor suit clad shoulders as she waits for Steve.

Well, she thinks, looking behind her at the burning mall, at least I don’t have to go to work tomorrow.

Her dad shows up about an hour after the guard arrives, and his panicked face breaks her heart. 

The big man throws his arms around her, and she nearly lets her tears loose.

“I thought I lost you, too, kid,” he whispers in her ear, and she hugs him a bit tighter before letting go. 

Her dad stays with her, and is there when the medic gives her news on Steve. He needs to go to the hospital, but his injuries aren’t life threatening, and he refuses to move until he sees that Joyce and Hopper are back. 

He nearly collapses like El when he realizes that only Joyce returned. Luckily, both Robin and Dustin are there to help him into the ambulance. 

Right as the medics get him and El ready for transport, Dustin’s mom shows up in a flurry of cat hair and panic, and he is pulled away with a sorrowful look at Steve. 

Mike Wheeler refuses to let the girl go alone, or at all, but Joyce promises Mrs. Wheeler to drive him to the hospital with her and the boys. 

Somehow, Robin convinces her dad she needs to go, too. 

He has to work in the morning, so he drops her off but promises to drop by in the morning. She stays in the waiting room with Mrs. Byers all night, and even watches Will and Mike for a moment so the woman can take a chance to collect herself. 

Finally, the doctor enters the waiting room. They are both in stable condition. The doctor can only disclose their medical status to family members, and Joyce can’t keep a steady voice when she tells him that El’s only relative died in the fire. 

The doctor’s face falls into a sympathetic look, and begins to cautiously explain the girl’s condition. Robin zones out, but is snapped back when the doctor asks her if she can contact Steve’s parents. 

Numbly, she realizes she’s never even heard Steve talk about his parents, let alone has their number to memory. 

Despite this, the little group is allowed to see them once the doctor gives them the room number.

Little Wheeler races down the hallway, and bursts into the room.

By some stroke of luck, both El and Steve are in the same room, separated by a sheet. Mike sits beside El and carefully holds her hand as she sleeps; Robin sits beside Steve, but she’d rather be caught with a girl than be caught holding his hand. 

In the morning, the rest of the kid’s gang and Jonathan and Nancy show up, coffee in hand. 

Dustin brings El her radio and a teddy bear, Erica’s brother smuggles in some chocolate pudding, and a redhead brings her a change of clothes and a scrunchie. 

The young girl’s eyes are red-rimmed, as though she’s been crying, and the black kid has his arms around her as she looks to El in the bed.

“For when she’s ready to leave,” she says to Mike, and he softly smiles back at her. 

Jonathan sets out on the task of getting his mother and Will home, and Nancy on trying to pry Mike away from El. 

“No! I’m not leaving her! Not now!” he cries, panicked, clutching her hand as if its a lifeline. 

At this point, El is awake and watching him, and gently places her hands on his face. 

“I’ll be okay, Mike. Go home and sleep. You’ll come back later?” she looks to Nancy hopefully, who nods and takes Mike by the shoulders. 

Mrs. Byers pops in, and takes stock of the kids in the room, jumping when she sees Robin quietly sitting beside Steve.

“I’m heading home with Will, but we’ll be back in a little bit. Jonathan’s gonna stay with El until we can get back. Call if you need anything, hon,” she says softly to the kids, mostly El and Jonathan, giving the girl a kiss on the forehead and her son a hug before moving to the other side of the curtain. 

“Erhm, Robin, your dad’s outside and wants you to go home for a little bit. Steve will be fine with the kids, and you need to sleep as much as the rest of us.” 

Robin, surprised at being acknowledged, nods tiredly and stands to follow Mrs. Byers outside.

Dustin moves to the other side of the curtain, over towards Steve, and he’s got a bag over his shoulder.

Steve’s still asleep. His hair is definitely messed up, and his face is bruised, but he’s alive.

“I’ve got his hair products, so he’ll be fine once he wakes up. I can see if I can get a hold of his parents,” he says casually, placing a hand on his shoulder before moving to take her place in the plastic chair beside him.

She’s too tired to respond, so she just nods and walks towards the door. The kids with El look at her funny, but the girl gives her a small wave as she exits.

That warm feeling comes back, the one she felt in the bathroom with Steve, and she walks out with a smile on her face.

Upon leaving the hospital, she immediately sees her dad’s car waiting in the fire lane. 

“You ready, kiddo?” 

She nods and gets into the passenger seat. 

He turns towards home, and seems to be struggling with what to say.

“I don’t know why you were there after hours, or what you were doing with that Harrington boy, but Rob, I’m glad you’re okay.” 

Robin smiles back at him and rests her head down. She's too tired to think about the insinuation of her and Steve being together, and instead falls asleep before they even reach the house. 

Robin sleeps for about twelve hours. She showers for about thirty minutes, and is ever thankful for clothes that are not sailor themed as she gets dressed. 

Robin, against her better judgement, rings Nancy, hoping to catch a ride with her and her brother. 

Mrs. Wheeler answers the phone, and seems surprised to hear an unfamiliar voice, but passes the phone off to Nancy anyway. 

“Hello?” the girl on the other line says, exhaustion laid in her voice.

“Uh, hi, Nancy, this is, uh, Robin, Steve’s friend, from Scoops and um, the hospital?” Robin starts, unsure how to go about this. 

“Oh,” Nancy responds, “how are you?”

Tired. Exhausted. Overwhelmed. Anxious. 

“I’m doing okay. I’d like to be polite and ask you the same but I think I know the answer.”

Robin is kicking herself, because why can’t she keep her mouth shut, but she relaxes when Nancy actually chuckles. 

“It’s how it is after one of these things. We’re managing, though. Was there something you needed?” she asks, not unkindly, but blunt and to the point.

“Uh, actually, yes. If you guys are heading to the hospital, like whenever you go, could I possibly catch a ride with you? My dad’s at work and I don’t have another way, but if not I understand.”

There’s a moment of silence, then a bit of a shuffling noise and muffled yelling before Nancy gets back on the line. 

“Hey, Robin? We’ll be over in like fifteen minutes. We weren’t going to head over this soon, but Steve and the others have been asking after you. Mike’s thrilled that we’re heading over early,” she responds, and before Robin can say that they don’t need to go out of their way to take her, the line is dead. 

Robin is waiting outside of her house awkwardly when Nancy pulls up in her station wagon. Her brother is in the front seat and has a bag full of things in his lap, and the pair greet her as she jumps in the back. 

Mike Wheeler pretends to not be glancing back at her every few minutes. She wishes she could be offended, but she’d be doing the same thing in his shoes. 

“So, Robin, Steve says you were in our class?” Nancy asks lightly, clearly attempting to lighten the mood in the car. 

“Yeah,” she begins lamely, not having thought about going back to school after what she’s seen, “I was working at Scoops to save money for college.”

Nancy nods her head, eyes not leaving the road. 

“Did we have any classes together?” 

Robin actually has to think about that for a second. Hawkins is small, but not that small. 

“I think home ec and gym sophomore year, but when I focused on band and technology junior year my schedule became kind of jumbled.”

Mike perks up at the mention of computers. 

“You took a class on technology?”

Robin nods. 

“It was nothing really, more about theory and binary code, but 1s and 0s make a language just like anything else,” she begins, “I was more about my English classes and drama club, honestly.”

“Oh, yeah!” Nancy says, her eyes brightening with memory, “you were the girl who memorized Juliet’s entire lines in Act II, Scene II of Romeo in Juliet!” 

Robin flushed, but nodded; that was her phase of trying to impress Michelle Williams. Definitely didn’t work.

Mike snorts. 

“You should talk to Dustin, he’s obsessed with theater. Says he wants to do drama this fall.”

Talking casually with the Wheeler siblings was weird but a time waster, and soon enough the three were back at the hospital. 

Nancy unconsciously grips Mike’s shoulders tighter as they enter the stark white building, and the three somehow make it past the lady at the front desk without a second glance. 

They enter the room to see all the kids crowded around El’s bed, and the sheet separating her and Steve is pulled back so he can see them. Jonathan is seated in a chair by the corner, and Nancy immediately flocks to him.

Steve’s face brightens when he sees her and puts his hands on his hips.

“Buckley, welcome back to the bench,” he smiles at her, and she smiles back before parking herself next to his bed. 

The kids throw them both weird looks, but Robin is genuinely happy to see him. 

The pair catch up a bit, and the room is filled with noisy conversation as all of its occupants talk. 

It’s nice.

It reminds her a little of her mom.

After a while, Steve grabs her hand. It doesn’t feel romantic, but comforting, and it’s then that Robin realizes she’s shaking. 

“Are you okay?” he asks her, eyes kind even through the swelling of his black eye. 

She nods quickly, but doesn’t move her hand. 

Her mind is filled with questions she’s been burning to ask, but she keeps them quiet for now.

She’s just happy he’s okay. 

Two days later, Steve gets discharged and El the day after that. Mrs. Byers insists on the kids coming over that Friday for a quiet night, maybe with some Dungeons and Dragons, and the invitation is extended to Steve and Robin. 

Robin doesn’t want to impose, but Steve mentions there will be free food. She ends up climbing in his car at half past eight, just before dark. 

She and Steve walk into the small but cozy home, and she waves at Nancy, Jonathan, and Dustin in the kitchen. 

Despite the trauma they’ve all received, the kids are loud, and Robin walks into the living room turned debate floor. 

“Why the hell does she need to know anything?” Mike screeches from where he’s parked himself next to El, “she could tell! It’s not safe!”

Dustin, from the kitchen, fires back.

“She already knows like a quarter of it, and she’s smart enough to figure out the rest if she does some digging! Hell, Mike, she translated Russian and she doesn’t even know the language!”

The kids don’t notice when she and Steve walk in, and Robin realizes belatedly that they’re talking about her. 

It keeps going until she clears her throat, and they all fall silent and turn to look towards her. 

Three of them have the decency to look sheepish. 

Mrs. Byers walks in, balancing a couple of plates on her hips.

“Everyone’s quiet, so I’m assuming we came to a conclusion. Are we going to tell her?”

The group begins to clamor once again, each one of the kids talking over the other, and it nearly becomes too loud to bear before the younger Byers speaks. 

“She’s one of us now, whether we like it or not. She didn’t ask for it, none of us did, but she at least deserves to know what’s going on,” he throws her a soft smile, and Robin thinks he’s her favorite. 

No one disagrees, not even Mike, who sits back and wraps his arm around El. The group seems to take a collective deep breath, and El begins.


End file.
